Network news – Bristol Wireless Backbone now stable

Lloyd Cohen, Bristol Wireless’ network engineer, reports that after much testing and reconfiguration following the initial installation works, our new 5.8 GHz backbone network now appears to be stable. While there are still a few tweaks to be done at each PoP (point of presence) to finalise the installs, plus the small job of bringing up a fifth node in Easton, the current network can now be regarded as pre-production in its present state.

The Bristol Wireless 5.8 GHz backbone currently interconnects Bristol University’s Merchant Venturers building housing our new connection to BMEX (Broadband Media Exchange), Knowle West Web (now part of the Bristol Wireless network) in Knowle and our existing PoPs in Kingsdown (Armada House), Easton (Twinnell House and Easton Community Centre) and Windmill Hill (Holroyd House). Each of these locations distributes access at 2.4 GHz, meaning that Bristol Wireless now has an infrastructure to which we can connect sites over a large part of the city.

Lloyd further states that Bristol Wireless is now ready to begin installing Level-2 PoPs connected to this network to distribute further wireless connectivity to the public for free and to local businesses for a competitive price.

In addition, our current 2.4 GHz systems connected to the network are to be reviewed with an eye to upgrading the present equipment for better performance.

More Bristol Wireless network news is promised soon, so any updates will be posted here.